Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
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“He threw very well,” Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. “We didn’t get much going off him. It didn’t look like he was coming off rehab.”
In the opener, Wood gave up four fast runs.
“I’ve got to figure something out in the first inning,” he said. “The last two times I’ve pitched, the first inning has been kind of rough.”
Brian Giles and Ryan Klesko also homered off Wood (0-1), who wound up allowing seven runs, one of them unearned. He needed 51 pitches to get through the first two innings and threw 112 by the time he left after Klesko’s drive with two outs in the seventh.
“Early on he didn’t have a feel for his breaking ball,” Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. “There’s no need for concern. He settled down after that first inning and found his release point. ... I’m sure he’ll be better the next time out.”
Jake Peavy (1-0) gave up two runs and six hits in seven innings, striking out seven and walking one.
“He came through with seven solid innings,” Bochy said. “That’s what you want in the first game of a doubleheader.”
Blum also homered leading off the ninth against left-hander Cliff Bartosh, the third time he homered from both sides of the plate in one game. Xavier Nady went 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles for the Padres, tying a career high for hits.
Peavy, who blanked Pittsburgh for 6 2-3 innings in his first start, gave up his first runs of the season in the fourth when Patterson homered and Burnitz hit a sacrifice fly. With the bases loaded and two outs, Peavy struck out Todd Hollandsworth.
After Blum’s first homer, Wood loaded the bases by hitting Mark Loretta in the hip with a pitch, then walking Giles and Klesko on a total of nine pitches. Phil Nevin hit an RBI grounder, Ramon Hernandez had an RBI single and Nady hit a dribbler to Wood, who threw wildly to first as another run scored.
Giles homered in the second for a 5-0 lead and had a sacrifice fly in the seventh before Klesko’s homer.
Notes: Blum homered from both sides on July 5, 2001, for Montreal against Florida and last May 4, 2004, with Tampa Bay at Texas. It was his fourth career multihomer game and also his first time leading off a game with a homer. ... Barrett threw out his third runner of the series, getting Klesko at second base in the fifth inning of the first game. ... Mike Fontenot made his major league debut for the Cubs, pinch running and scoring in the ninth inning of the opener. He pinch hit and walked in the seventh inning of the second game. ... Patterson has a nine-game hitting streak, the first for the Cubs at the start of the season since Brian McRae in 1996.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.